Beauty and a hotline beat. In an exclusive new interview with Us Weekly, a reflective Justin Bieber reveals what lessons he learned from his past relationship with Selena Gomez, and opens up to Us about their current friendship.
"I think we didn’t really know what we were doing," the Purpose singer, 21, tells Us Weekly's Entertainment Director Ian Drew of their on-again, off-again three-year relationship. "[We were] young and we kinda just invested too much of ourselves into each other."
The superstar singers split for good last fall — and Bieber had plenty of takeaways. "I learned a lot from the relationship," the "Sorry" crooner tells Us. "About life, how to treat women, what women want and need. I think a woman needs security. I think a woman needs to feel that security and know that nothing else matters. I learned that with her."
He's still learning lessons from her, in fact. "She’s my homey. We’re friends," Bieber tells Us. "We don’t talk every day. But every now and then, she hits my phone up."
Joking, he adds: "I hit her phone up, too, I hit her phone up too! It’s not just her . . . It goes both ways, I was just f–king around."
For now, the "What Do You Mean?" hitmaker is unattached. "I like a beautiful girl. Who doesn’t?" he tells Us — but that's it for now. "I’m not really ready to date right now," he shares. "I’m just trying to just focus on my music and stuff right now. I’m happily single. Single life is good. It’s not bad at all."
After his high-profile breakup from Gomez and a crazed year of scandals, including a DUI arrest, Bieber completely dove into his work and cleaned up his life for the most part.
"It took some time to figure out the right people and producers," Bieber tells Us of arduously pulling together Purpose. "But greatness takes perfection and perfection takes time."
He teases what to expect from the album, out Nov. 13. "There’s a lot of stuff, like just talking about growth and just feeling like you’re not good enough," he tells Us. "I address a lot of what I have been through and what people thought about me and how I felt."
Gomez, for her part, praised her ex-boyfriend and his comeback tour in an interview this past September. "This is what I always saw in him," the "Same Old Love" songstress told the New York Times.
For more from Bieber's exclusive new interview, pick up Us Weekly's special annual music issue, on stands now!
